Kochi: Kerala High Court on Friday deferred the bail petition of Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal, who were arrested under UAPA for alleged links with Maoists, to November 14.

The HC has directed the government and police to provide explanation in connection with the case on the same day.

When the matter came to the court, the petitioners said that the police did not have any documents to prove links with Maoists.

Alan said that he is a law student and did not have any criminal background. The police only recovered one mobile phone from my house and that is not a document to prove Maoist links, Alan said in his bail petition.

Meanwhile, Thaha said the police made him raise slogans when arrested. He also said that raising slogans was not a criminal offence. The lower court did not mention any crime registered against us, he said. As a journalism student, any books recovered from his house cannot prove that he was a member of CPI (Maoist), Thaha said in the petition.

Advocate of the accused asked the court to consider the bail plea on Friday itself. However, the court sought explanation from the government and police before deferring the matter to November 14.

The police have sought to take the two accused under custody and are planning to conduct further investigations in the case.